When it comes to publications on Medium, I keep getting that wrong for myself – and all by myself. The owners and editors have all been great, and are doing great jobs. Despite that, I always seem to find fault where really there is no fault to be found. So, less harm is done if I just go back to doing my own thing.
This week, that has involved making a few changes. Within Medium, that includes creating a publication with only one writer, called ‘Fraser Writing’.
In many ways, and many people have argued so, this is a pointless thing to do, if I already have a profile, but I find it offers better presentation and better organisation, even if only a little. I will see how it goes, and may abandon it if it begins to feel cumbersome.
Outside of Medium, I have gone back to rebuilding fraserd.me as a separate entity, partly because I am concerned about the rug being pulled from under my feet, as has recently been seen for others on Medium, but also because I wanted something that was partly more representative of me in the real world as well as the virtual one. That will take a while to complete (I think by September 2024), but will do so publicly.
Alongside that, I have made some changes where I largely intend to write more informally and I am aiming to write more regularly, too. At the same time, I don’t want to be held prisoner by deadlines, so I will see what shape that takes as I go along, rather than predicting something that might never come to fruition.
With all of that in mind, I am abandoning the ‘Gratitude Journal’, and replacing it with ‘That Was The Week – Beginning on…’.
It is true that I will soon be retired, but I also have a busy academic year ahead of me, with twice as much coursework to do (including writing project or action research) as I had in the last year (which was challenging enough, given illness this year).
On the note of illness, I think (fingers crossed) that I have finally banished pleural infection from my body (at least for the time being), or pushed it back for a while, following 3 course of tricyclic antibiotics and 2 courses of oral steroids (Again!).
In tandem with that, my hearing is improving again following (what seems like) a thousand gallons of olive oil being poured into my ears.
Finally, after about 3-4 weeks of legs continuously wrapped in tubifast, wadding and full compression dressings, to the point where I could not wear normal footwear, and was effectively housebound, the compression is doing its job, and the socks have been ordered, so another new, permanent reality lies ahead.
But Summer beckons as Spring finally gives us brighter weather, at least some of the time, and I will be here to keep writing about it, and making the mundane somewhat less so – at least for me, anyway.
Until then…
Fraser
April 2024